About The Clinic
Why choose The Headache and Pain Management Centre?
At The Headache and Pain Management Centre, we do things differently.
You deserve to have the cause of your pain diagnosed quickly and accurately, and then have the right treatment strategies implemented for your individual needs.
Complex, long-standing and severe headache and pain issues need the most effective, cutting-edge and up-to-date treatment possible. That is why you need:
- Assessment and treatment methodologies are different to other physiotherapy practices.
- Physiotherapists who have all been trained by the Watson Headache Institute, using the Watson Headache Approach.
- The world-beating MedX Medical Lumbar Extension Machine – which is the most effective way to strengthen the specific muscles most responsible for lower back pain.
- Your pain to be looked at in a genuinely holistic way using the latest and most up-to-date strategies.
- Treatment that starts and ends with you in mind, with treatment tailored to what you want, not what we want.
- A combination of tried and established manual therapy techniques, and the latest advances in neuroscience research.
- Initial consultations which are one hour long, which gives you ample time to get to know us and tell to your story.
Because we push new frontiers and ideas for pain and headache treatments in a safe manner, using both hands-on practice and educative strategies, we have the knowledge needed to help your headache and pain condition. And if we aren’t able to find the answers straight away, we will seek to find them for you. We are genuinely passionate about helping you live the life you want, using the body you have and care about.
Benefit from our Cutting-Edge Headache and Pain treatments
At the Headache and Pain Management Centre, we understand that you may have tried it all. But often the headache and pain knowledge passed on by clinicians is not the most up-to-date information. Often, the standard treatments you have tried require a more individual touch.
By seeking out the best information from the leading researchers in their fields – whether they have been published or not – you can obtain the widest possible view of what may be causing your individual pain problem. Just because the current best practice guidelines say a certain treatment should work, doesn’t mean that it will for you. We never forget that everyone is different.
We invite you to experience our extensive headache and pain knowledge and unique treatment strategies for yourself. Our goal is your goal, where pain isn’t such a burden.
Our Principles
Our promise to you
At Headache and Pain Management Centre, our goal is not to see you every one or two weeks for the rest of your life. Instead, we will thoroughly assess you and methodically diagnose to determine which musculoskeletal or neurophysiological factor is the reason for your headache or pain condition. We then work with you to treat that cause effectively and in a timely fashion.
On day one:
- We will make it clear which musculoskeletal or neurophysiological factor is a contributing factor to your headache or pain condition.
- We will explain what the cause of your headache or chronic pain condition is. If there is a musculoskeletal cause, we will begin treatment on the first day. If there is some other cause, we will work with you to determine which treatment method is right for you, which may include advice and education, exercise program or referral to a relevant specialist.
We will constantly reassess your treatment plan to ensure the best outcomes. We will always liaise with you to give you what you believe is the best form of treatment. You are in complete control.
We also promise:
- That we will listen and take your story seriously. No symptom is too bizarre, no tale too confronting.
- That we will answer all of your questions to the best of our knowledge, using information sourced from only the most recent and relevant research. In the event that we do not immediately have an answer, we will endeavour to find one for you.
At the Headache and Pain Management Centre, our vision is to be a highly recognised treatment facility, leading the way in the continual development and delivery of world-class, unique and accurate treatment methodologies.
Meet our team
Deborah Johannsen, Physiotherapist
Deborah Johannsen is a Masters Qualified physiotherapist from the University of Queensland. An excellent scholar, she completed a Nursing and a Science degree prior to her Physiotherapy degree. Deborah has worked exclusively in Private Practice settings, obtaining a solid base in a different general physiotherapy clinic upon her graduation. She actively sought a path in treating headaches, neck and jaw conditions, and joined our team the first time an opportunity arose.
Deborah’s caring, quiet and empathetic nature serves her patients well. She continues to treat many difficult headache and migraine cases, and is an expert in treating low back pain using the MedX Machine. She has undertaken numerous external training courses, including the Watson Headache® Approach, a Clinical Pilates course and multiple Dry Needling courses.
Deborah also speaks fluent Indonesian – although it is spoken with an Aussie accent!
Nikki Rathbone, Physiotherapist
Since graduating with First Class honours from the University of Queensland, Nikki has established herself as an excellent clinician in both private practice and hospital settings. Her widespread experience in treating all manner of pain conditions, including low back pain, sporting injuries and headache/migraine conditions, means she is ideally suited to finding and treating your pain condition.
Nikki’s membership of the Women’s Health Committee of the Australian Physiotherapy Association is clear evidence of her passion for physiotherapy and continuing excellence.
Nikki is currently completing her Master’s degree in Sports Physiotherapy at LaTrobe University. She has travelled nationwide to complete over 25 extensive professional development courses, including Trigger Point Dry Needling from the Global Education of Manual Therapists Group, Acupuncture and Dry Needling from the Combined Health Group, and specific sporting rehabilitation courses including lower limb, shoulder, and sacro-iliac joint courses. She has completed her Level 3 Watson Headache Approach Certification, and her Advanced Sports Level 3 course at the Australian Institute of Sport.
Nikki also has extensive knowledge of the treatment of women’s health including lymphodema, pregnancy pain and pelvic floor dysfunction. She relishes working at the cutting-edge of physiotherapy and attaining the best outcome for your headache or pain condition.
Chris Fawcett, Director
Since graduating from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Physiotherapy in 2007, Chris Fawcett has worked exclusively in private practice. Throughout his career he has dealt with cases varying from acute pain to longstanding pain, and treated all areas of the body. Today, Chris is focused on those patients who are struggling to find answers to their chronic pain – no matter how many opinions may have been sought, tests carried out, or difficulties encountered. This focus has lead him to establish the clinics that would become The Headache and Pain Management Centre.
With a commitment to ongoing education in headache and pain treatment, Chris has undertaken courses locally, nationally and internationally in his efforts to discover the most effective ways to cure and manage pain. He has completed and taught at numerous high-level training courses, including Trigger Point Dry Needling courses from the Global Education of Manual Therapists’ group, and the Explain Pain Symposium held in Melbourne in 2014. He has also travelled all over Australia to various clinics, working with all manner of different types of therapists (including physiotherapists, chiropractors and neurologists), to further investigate the methods needed to get the results for all his patients.
Chris was one of the first in the world to have been qualified by the Watson Headache® Institute as a Watson Headache® Certified Practitioner, and he has been a member of the teaching staff of the Watson Headache® Institute, where he assisted in teaching physiotherapists the specific techniques required to treat headache and migraine conditions.
Chris is passionate about teaching the truth about pain and headaches, and continuing to learn how it all links together. He firmly believes this is still an area where exciting discoveries will continue to be made – helping you get better, faster.
